I'm personally all for the death penalty. As well as using life timers or death row prisoners for experimentation; the less humane the better. It makes sense to me personally. Not only do you eliminate the possibility of them getting paroled somehow but once people see that the price for murder, rape, etc is to either be shot like a sick dog or used to see just how long someone can survive if say, submerged in a vat of sulfuric acid.

Cruel? Perhaps. but maybe it'll make that shit hole of a gangbanger think twice about shooting that 14 year old who just happens to be wearing the wrong color when he walks home from school. >:(

Also, a special case in the instance of child molesters. Don't kill them right away. Put them in with the general population and make sure the entire prison knows this fellow likes to fuck little jimmy or jane and see how long he last. ANd if on the off chance he's still alive after a week take him outback, lock him in a cage and shoot him in the get then let bacteria or blood loss do the rest.

personally, ive always been a fan of forced consctiption for "leathal duties"

IE, lets have them clear minefields...by hand....if they learn fast, then they clear fields of mines and potentially save people from grevious injury, maiming, death, etc, if they dont learn fast...well.....the mine they set off dosent blow off poor <insert thirdworld kids name here> foot/arm/head, and a life is still saved.

Also think about it economically, as mentioned earlier. These guys are living in a somewhat poor living condition, but they have no bills, meals given to the, a house, sometimes they'll get TV. Meanwhile people outside have to fight for jobs and such, and we -pay- for the criminal to stay alive there.

-Economically it'd be cheaper to eliminate the offender, provided he did something worth the cause (Say multiple murder or rape/murder combo).

-In a side commentary, if the death penalty was more allowed, we would have to try kids as adults in the standard system (Not give them the death penalty, just treat the minors as adults with how our current system is). I've seen recently in the news of an 8yr old who killed a bunch of threatened lizard species at a zoo, and gets away scott free because he's too young. Or about the two canadian kids who premeditated-ly broke into a neighbor's house on two nights, and on the second night threw the neighbor cat into a microwave and left it on, laughing about it. They got 1 fucking year of community service and can't own pets for 2 years, and they're like 14. Wow, that's gonna tell them "Yea, we can't do that again"

--In short: I'm all fucking for harsher punishment on idiots and criminals

Sorry to have derailed a bit, but since the Death Penalty is a punishment, don't you think these kids got off a bit -too light- in comparison to their crimes, just as a lot of murderers and such nowadays are getting away with life in prison? Similar, not exact, but still.

It has it's uses, but it does not prevent crime by sticking it over everything.

For the crazy murder that says "If you let me go I'll just start killing people again" then I personally think it's justified. However it's not something to be used lightly, after all you are in control of someone's life.